Marauders vs Tsukis
by MlleNinja
Summary: AU. The Tsukis is a group of six pranksters who are known only by reputation but not name. After the Marauders become extremely annoyed with them, they retaliate and set off a prank war and only The Tsukis know who the others are.
1. Chapter 1

**Marauders vs. Tsukis**

**by MlleNinja **AKA dancegirlgirl

**Summary**: AU. The Tsukis is a group of six pranksters who are known only by reputation but not name. After the Marauders become extremely annoyed with them, they retaliate and set off a prank war and only The Tsukis know who the others are.

Warnings: Language, Violence, Teenagers being Teenagers

**Disclaimer**: I'll only say it once. I do not own Harry Potter. Nor do I own anything related to the universe. That all belongs to JKR.

This has been **Beta'd by** Jatori23112 and my friend Lyn, who helped expand this story from the original.

**This is AU as:**

There is no Voldemort, nor are there Death Eaters.

Slytherin prejudices are minimal and only a select few call Slytherins Dark Lords.

There is also a different schedule for school than there is in canon. THIS IS INTENTIONAL.

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><p>I could feel the air blowing my hair back as I ran as quickly and quietly as I possibly could down the halls while wearing my annoyingly loud shoes that never seemed to be able to travel in silence. With an irritated sigh, I tugged them off and proceeded to run without them. Instantly I had mixed feelings about this decision; while it was quieter in my bare feet, the floor was also freezing cold and possibly dirty. Another gust of wind hit me and my hands flew instinctively to my exposed arms, which had goosebumps by now. It was cold, and I wished that I had my robe. I always seemed to forget that darned piece of clothing whenever I really wanted it and, of course, I really wanted it now. Honestly, I'm not positive why I don't wear it all the time, although it can get extremely hot and sweaty. That's probably the reason.<p>

Along every wall hung portraits, animated portraits, but I had no time to stop and admire them. Normally, they were captivating enough for anyone to stop for just a few seconds and talk to them, but I couldn't afford to do that. You see, I was trying to flee from that evil cat named Mrs. Norris. If she caught up with me it would surely mean detention. I don't mind detention, per se, but it is a waste of time. I could be doing something else, something more productive. Like pulling pranks, for instance. I find that to be a very good way to use my time. What is life without fun?

I allowed my mind to wander until I literally ran into somebody. Stumbling back in shock and surprise, I nearly dropped the shoes. Actually, they were on their way to the ground but I managed to catch them before they made contact. Initially, my thought was to try to blend in and hide, so I threw myself against the wall in an effort to camouflage myself. The resulting noise was obnoxiously loud, and as it echoed down the hall, I realized that it would have been a better idea to run. Oh well, too late now.

I still didn't know who it was that I had run into. A million thoughts raced through my head as I squinted into the darkness in an effort to figure out who it was, each fragment of my vivid imagination worse than the one before. This was wonderful - now I was panicking and couldn't think straight, but I couldn't get the images out of my head. What if it was McGonagall or maybe Filch?

I managed to make out a black robe with green and silver trim, which narrowed it down to someone in the Slytherin house. It was a bit of a relief, but not enough for comfort. Slytherins were notorious for their cunning, and I wouldn't put them past blackmail. They weren't bad, but like most, they wanted to succeed in life, and it never hurt to either get on the good side of the headmasters or receive something nice in exchange for not turning a fellow student in.

"Hello? Who's there?" I recognized the daring and confident voice of my friend, Adder. Thank Merlin, it was only Adder. Now that I knew who it was, I dared to step out of the shadows and move to where I could see her better. I didn't speak, not yet. Adder's brown eyes shone with hostility until she recognized me in the dim light, and once again I was relieved to have her as a friend. Kind as she was to me, I knew how rarely she showed compassion toward those she barely knew.

"Oh, it's just you, Talon. Why are you running through the halls?" she asked, dark eyebrows raised in curiosity.

"Ask me no questions, and I shall tell you no lies." I replied, flipping some of my hair behind my shoulder. It tickled the bare skin on my shoulder that would normally have been covered in the robe and I did my best not to shudder. I was still cold, and it was only getting cooler.

Adder stared at me for a moment, and then smirked. "Good answer." She decided, running a slightly tan hand through her brown hair.

"Oh yeah, it um, might be a good idea to run, Adder."

She gave a questioning glance but, with a faint smirk and shake of her head, was certian I had a good reason. With a quick glance behind us, we began to run as fast as we could go in the dimly lit hallways.

"Look out, Talon." Adder grabbed my shoulder and steered me out of the way of something that I was apparently about to run into. We cut through multiple halls and secret passages before Adder turned, gave a wave and ran toward the Slytherin dungeons. I, on the other hand, kept going straight and skidded to a stop in front of the common room door. There hung the golden eagle knocker, though I was not in the mood for one of its challenging riddles. I needed access to my room and fast.

Finally the knocker spoke. "Where do vanished items go?"

"Into nonbeing," I replied after only a moment's thought, which wasn't long considering I was a Ravenclaw and it wasn't too terribly challenging of a riddle anyway.

"Correct." The voice replied as the door opened. I briefly considered thanking the knocker for the simplicity of the question, but that would not only waste the precious time I had but would also serve no purpose as the golden eagle was an inanimate object save for its ability to talk. I ducked in through the door and welcomed the almost homely feel of the room I had become accustomed to for the three plus years I had been here.

I started skipping toward my golden-haired friend Redwing, who was looking extremely impatient while standing in the middle of the blue and bronze room, tapping her foot quickly against the ground. Once I caught sight of her narrowed eyes aimed at the clock, I suddenly remembered that I was supposed to tell her the results of Fireye's idea at 10:00. Oh well, if it was too late, it was too late and Redwing could never get very angry anyways.

"Do you know what time it is?" Redwing asked as sweetly as she could despite her naturally slightly demonic appearance. Well, this was wonderful. Being asked that question was never a good sign, especially when it was asked by one who was notorious for late arrivals.

"No..." I replied, glancing at the clock in an effort to find out the time before she told me. I couldn't see it though, and had to turn back to her in defeat.

"It's midnight, and I've waited for over two hours for your arrival. I have half a mind to yell and although I'm not going to, beware..." she tried to threaten in as ominous of a voice as the smaller girl could muster. I honestly wasn't sure how she knew what time it was when I couldn't see it myself, but I also knew better than to challenge her. It was amusing enough to see Redwing try to be serious, but a mad Redwing was someone you didn't want to mess with.

"Nice try Redwing, you're getting better. Now, don't you want to hear what happened?" I laughed as her whole demeanor changed in a blink of an eye. Her attempt at being stern and dominant changed into a barely concealed state of excitement, easily portrayed by her ever-honest blue eyes.

"Of course I want to know. Did it work? Did you have any issues? Did you receive any detentions or lose any house points?" She was going a kilometre a second with her questions, but she was a fast talker anyway and I easily understood the words that she had quickly slung together in her over-excited state. Redwing was a hyper girl anyway, and she often talked so quickly and youthfully that many people couldn't understand what the wide-eyed, pale, dirty blond girl was going on about. My friends and I even joked about "Speaking Redwing".

"Let's see. Just wait for tomorrow's breakfast to see if it worked." Unfortunately, I didn't know if it actually worked so I couldn't tell her even if I wanted to. "Of course I had issues, Mrs. Norris seemed to see me and ended up chasing me, which seemed weird so it might've been my paranoia kicking in. I saw Adder, too, although I wonder why she was there. No, I didnt lose either house points or receive detentions as I wasn't caught."

"Why won't you tell me if it worked?" Redwing whined. "You know, you just don't want to tell me!"

"Because it's a surprise." She wouldn't believe me if I continued with the plea that I knew nothing, so perhaps this would work.

"Aw... You're no fun." She complained, managing to make herself look younger than she already looked. With her long dirty blond hair that could never stay perfectly straight no matter how many times you brushed it, bangs that hung straight down in her face, and freckles dotted along her nose and cheeks, people often mistook her for being years younger than she really was. Redwing really was the youngest out of our group of friends, though, so she was already the baby and got away with things she shouldn't. A victory when arguing with her was never gloated about because when she lost, she pulled out her innocent little girl face and made you feel all bad.

I opened my mouth in an attempt to reason with her but quickly realised it was a down-hill battle. "See? This is why I was the one to set up the prank, not you, because you cannot keep a secret. Or keep quiet."

"And why did **you** end up being the one to set it up?" She retorted, tucking a few strands of her stringy golden hair behind her ear and staring up at me in disappointment.

"Nobody ever suspects me." I said, shaking my head and laughing lightly as I thought of the naivety of most people. Somehow being the better-behaved one who never got in trouble made me the ideal person to run around doing these little night missions. Fortunately, it had paid off so far, seeing as I had never been caught.

She rolled her eyes and said in a childish mocking tone, "Yeah, you have your image to keep up."

Redwing **adored** to use that argument but I heard it so many times that I honestly didn't need to think up a reply. I used my standard comeback of: "My 'image', as you put it, keeps you lot out of trouble."

Redwing sighed in resignation and started walking to the stairs of our dorm. She started climbing, then turned around to face me, her exhaustion shown only by her tired blue eyes. "I'm going to bed. It's midnight and I need to check at breakfast to see if my idea worked." Suddenly she really looked tired and I considered telling her all I knew instead of holding back and surprising her, especially since she apparently **had** waited all night for me. Oh, well. It would be more fun for all of us to know at the same time tomorrow than for many of us to know now.

"It was Fireye's idea!" I called up the stairs to remind her, but it either didn't register in her tired head or she didn't care until she had gotten to the top of the stairs. It was probably a mixture of both.

"Your point?" Redwing replied as she finally finished the stairs and went into the dorms. I followed with a shake of the head at my friend's youthful antics and as soon as I got there, I changed into my pyjamas and fell asleep. As my adrenalin emptied out and sleep begin to take over, I heard Redwing's final murmur: "It better have worked."


	2. Chapter 2

I woke up that morning to a full dormitory. 'Good', I thought, blinking until my eyes adjusted to the light, 'Mason isn't hogging the shower yet'. Sliding off the bed and landing on something soft, I looked down at the floor and raised my eyebrows.

"Redwing, what is this?" I asked, staring at the floor. There was a little teddy-bear on the ground with the name 'Hestia' scrawled across it. She shot up and pounced on it like a cat going after a mouse.

"Nothing!" She screeched, clutching it to her chest. As I walked by to take a quick shower, I saw her stuffing it under her pillow and stroking it. Silly Redwing. I quickly took a shower and got dressed before stepping out of my room, this time wearing the robe I had missed so dearly last night. Sighing in slight contentment, I let my gaze travel over my roommates. They're quite different from both me and Redwing. Justine Adams is a stereotypical Ravenclaw. She studies every minute, has long brown hair and hazel eyes, gets straight Os and wants to be Minister of Magic. Adams is definitely someone you want to have on your side, though, because she is also very persuasive and can do serious damage if she needs to. She's very popular and well-respected, which is how she got this power; she never uses it to her advantage, though, not like a Slytherin might. Adams will simply fight for what is right, or is right as far as she knows. Meanwhile, Francine Mason is the total opposite of Adams. She's a blonde and acted like a walking stereotype. She got straight Ps and most of the school thinks that she either tricked the sorting hat or bribed the headmaster into making her come into the land of the eagles. She may very well have, too. She doesn't really seem to fit any of the houses, though. Mason is a self-centered, proud, ignorant girl and honestly, she was only here because she knew how to do magic. Mason is well-known as Adams's best friend, so I think that she most likely tricked the hat to be with Adams. In all her defense, though, she is very pretty, with her wavy blond hair and blue eyes, and is generally friendly. Redwing, as I have described before, is a childish, hyper prankster and I am an academic prankster. They were all still asleep, save for Redwing who was actually about to fall back into unconsciousness anyway. For a brief moment, I considered waking her up but decided against it. Redwing needed her sleep. I went to the common room and checked the time with a quick Tempus. It ended up showing 8:30 so I went to the Great Hall and sat with the snakes.

Not many people realize there actually isn't a rule saying, "You must sit at your own house table." Believe me, I checked during my ORAD days. ORAD stands for Obsessive Rule Abiding Disorder, which I still have to a certain degree but not nearly as badly. Never one to deliberately do something wrong, I used to go through rule book after rule book in an effort to make sure that everything I did was not against the rules. After a couple missions that forced me to almost break a few minor rules, it died down quite a bit. I still wouldn't break a major, important rule, but thankfully we are a very well-behaved group and I know my friends would never make me do any missions I wasn't comfortable with doing. Speaking of my friends, they still weren't here, so I continued to sit here waiting for the others to come. Very few students were at the tables at that moment, though the tables were starting to fill up as the minutes ticked slowly by. A few firsties sat rushing to finish their essays. A Gryffindor prefect was sitting there expecting something or other. Of course, the teachers were all there. McGonagall had her "sternness" on full blast. Flitwick just sat there cheerfully. And Slughorn sat there waiting for his "Slug Club", which is basically a fancy name for his favorite students and his keys to being rich.

Then the arrogant idiots who called themselves "The Marauders" strutted in laughing and joking really **loudly**. Nobody realized anything wrong. But then again nothing had happened yet. I tried to cover my grin and sat there contemplating the genius that Fireyes possessed. It attacked Potter's ego by having- There! Potter ruffled his hair. He did it constantly to make it look "windswept". I rolled my eyes; he did it even if nobody was around. It was really annoying, and only made me think less highly of him than I already did. Hopefully, Fireyes's trick would put a stop to it. I sat there, holding my breath, praying this would work. It took a moment but it happened. His hair receded into his head a centimetre, and although it doesn't sound like much, the number of times he'll ruffle his hair in an hour is more than Mason looks at herself in the mirror in a day . Every time he swept a hand though his hair it would shrink his hair and hopefully his ego, although the latter was mostly wishful thinking. He still hadn't realized yet, much to my amusement. In a few hours, he **might** realize something was wrong. Maybe. Well, he'll definitely realize when he becomes bald because he'd have nothing to ruffle. It'll take about fifteen or so hair flips for him to become bald. I accidentally let a giggle slip through my mouth, thinking about how funny it will be when he realizes his hair is missing.

At least it'll teach him to not pick on us. Well, speak of the devil and he shall appear, there they are now. Three Gryffindors, another Ravenclaw, and two Slytherins. An odd bunch really, especially the lions and the snakes. We've been friends since primary school since we lived right near each other, so house rivalries were non-applicable to extreme situations. Adder and Alphess constantly had a friendly fight going on, as well as Leo and Fireyes, but very rarely would it get out of hand. Most of the time it was something as simple as vanilla versus chocolate. Thankfully, though, we were all mature enough to put aside our differences for when the situation called for it, no questions asked.

Cecelia "Darklight" Domenick, Carna "Leo" Brambler and Acacia Lee "Alphess" King are the Gryffindor lions. Darklight has long brown hair with shades of purple and glittering amber eyes. She tended to be silly and quick-tempered, so she'd slap you if you upset her to a certain point. It's highly unlikely that she'd actually aim for a real hit, and her concern would be getting whoever upset her back. Should it escalate to an excessive level, she would most likely turn and tell someone who could do some serious damage. Darklight's nickname came from her personality: almost contradicting, yet it all fit together perfectly to create one wonderful, crazy, spastic girl that everyone loved once they took the time to get to know her. Leo, on the contrary, has long, poofy, wavy black hair that seemed to turn a pretty shade of dark amber under a light. She has deep brown eyes that show nearly as much emotion as Redwing's do. It doesn't take too terribly much to set Leo off and she would punch you if you made her angry, never mind cursing you. She's very inventive in dueling techniques. Her nickname comes from the fact that she's a Gryffindor Lion, as well as the fact that she enjoys acting cat-like. She doesn't mind that her nickname is a boy's name; the majority of us are tomboys, if not all of us. Alphess has longish brown hair, blue-green eyes, and is extremely tall. She'd probably punch you if you took her stuff and she is **strong**. However, she tends to save her strength for something she finds worth fighting for, like if someone hurts her friends. Most of the time, her focus is on getting her stuff back and she'd chase you down like a wolf and fight if necessary to get it back. Alphess wouldn't go out of her way to punch someone though, and tends to be the one holding Leo back.

Hestia "Redwing" Linda has long brown hair, bright blue eyes, and freckles all over her nose and cheeks. She also has a weird last name but would curse you if you said so. She is my roommate that I mentioned earlier, and is like the little baby of our group despite not being the youngest, though I think I mentioned that earlier. Her nickname actually has nothing to do with her; we were the Ravenclaw Eagles, and she was named after them.

T.J. "Adder" Jones and Alona "Fireyes" Richardson were the snakes. If you asked what Adder's initials stood she'd pay off either Alphess or Leo to punch you. She is cunning, clever, and almost always has a smirk on her face as though she knows something you don't. It's completely possible, too. She has straight brown hair that cascades down to just below her shoulder and knowing brown eyes that always seem one step ahead of everyone else. Adder can be hostile before you get to know her and rarely goes out of her way to make new friends, but she's as loyal as they get once you win her over. Fireyes would fire a modified _Obliviate_ to make you lose your memory of the last two weeks if you happened to mess with her in any way. She tends to overreact quickly and strongly, but most of the time there are others around her to calm her down. Once she's had a chance to think everything over, Fireyes is well-known at thinking up brilliant plans to get back at those who dare tick her off. She's a good friend, too, and is really goofy and playful. She has light brown eyes and blond hair that's just above her shoulders, and if one didn't know who she was, Fireyes would seem perfectly innocent. But we knew better; Fireyes had come up with this ingenious plan.

I waved to them so that they could find me. It took a second for one of them to see me, and I rolled my eyes. Intelligent as they were, most of them overlooked the big, obvious things and instead focused on the almost nonexistent details. Darklight pointed at me and they came over to the table, dropping their stuff underneath it. I told Redwing to look at Potter. When she did, she had to stifle a laugh although it was still slightly audible. His hair was now only five centimetres long and he still hadn't noticed. I was suprised it was only five minutes ago that it started. Redwing showed Potter to the rest of our group and we all started laughing. People looked at us strangely, but that was nothing new. We always laughed at random and weird things so people always looked at us strangely.

"He's more oblivious than we are!" Darklight snickered, just barely loud enough for us to hear.

"Even I would notice that!" Fireyes replied, though she gingerly touched the tips of her hair as she said this. Just to make sure.

Then Potter realized what happened and tried to regrow it with a random spell. It didn't work. The only ways to reverse the effects are: be a Metamorphagus and regrow it, stop doing whatever is causing hair loss and wait for the lost hair to grow back, or find the counter-curse. He obviously was not a Metamorphagus as it wasn't changed yet. From what I deducted from the past few years, the only one with enough patience to wait it out would be Lupin.

Anyway, the third option might happen, if they look hard enough. We found the spell in a book in a hidden book store in Diagon Alley that is near Knockturn Alley. The store was small enough so that onlookers cannot find it, but large enough to have hundreds of books, even really rare books. We pooled our money together a few years ago and bought the book to help us with our pranks. Despite all its years of use, it looked as new as when we bought it, though the "new" condition of the book seemed as though it was at least one hundred years old.

The incantation was reducere cum crinem then you do what the other person would do to cause the reduction or hair. To grow it back, the person cursed has to does the action they were originally cursed against doing then they say extendere crines. If they do find the curse, it might take a while to find the trigger. But that would last until, at least, tomorrow. And that was long enough for us.

Suddenly Potter stood up and announced to the hall, "We, the Marauders, challenge whoever did this prank to a prank war. Give us an answer by dinner tonight."

He then sat down, looking smug as though he thought he had frightened whoever did this to him. It didn't last, though, because he remembered his "hair crisis" and frowned. Still, he ruffled his hair and it receded again. Always oblivious. We smirked and Darklight whispered something to Alphess. She nodded and formed our response from under the table. Alphess then cast the spell so it would form on the ceiling in big green letters. It stated, "We, the Tsukis, accept the Marauders' challenge. Please give a statement of terms and we'll agree on a neutral party to be the judge by tomorrow's dinner." Normally Alphess would have called them "Morados", the Spanish word for purple, just to get on their nerves. But not now; now was the time to preserve our anonymity and act mature. Name-calling could take place later at a more entertaining time.

The Marauders blanched. The Marauders were a legendary group for their pranks, but so were the Tsukis. We had slightly less of a reputation for pranks, but we were still well-known. Albeit we weren't as legendary as the Mauraders, but we had anonymity, which gave us respect and our pranks on the Marauders, which gave us much more respect. Nobody knew who the members of the Tsukis were, how old they were, what house they were in, or even what gender they were. Most suspected four or five 6th or 7th year Slytherin boys, although their suspects changed year to year for the graduation of prior suspects. Actually, we were seven 4th year girls from Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. We occasionally used advanced spells so that they suspected older year but we usually used 1st to 3rd year spells and rare/unknown/old spells, which are actually quite easy. Since the Marauders constantly bragged to everyone, everybody knew who they were, but not us. No, we kept quiet to most to keep our anonymity.

We looked across the table at each other and smirked. To those ignorant of the members of the Tsukis, it seemed like we thought that the Marauders got what they deserved. We agreed with that statement but we smirked because it signified the success of another prank and the chance of a lifetime beat those legends.


	3. Chapter 3

**EDITED DISCLAIMER**

**All that jazz I said earlier PLUS a few other things. There are some edited quotes throughout this story from the following plays/musicals: The Audition, The Rehearsal, Miss Nelson is Missing, We Will Remember, and a few others I cannot remember right now. I do not own any of those. I also borrowed names/characters from the following media: Flowers for Algernon and Unwind. Now on with the story...**

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><p>"Fireyes, that was incredible genius! And Talon, I can't believe you actually got it to work!" Fang was beside herself with joy while Leo clung to Fireyes' back. The blond simply grinned; she was out of breath from carrying Leo up seven flights of stairs. Darklight and Redwing had locked arms and were skipping along behind everyone, grinning like nothing better had happened before in their lives.<p>

"Guys, chill out," Adder commented sternly, though her trademark smirk was showing clearly on her pale face. "We don't want to give ourselves away." Her dark eyes twinkled ever-so-slightly, though, and she dropped her voice to a whisper. "Just wait, we can celebrate later."

Leo sighed. "Okay..." she let go of Fireyes' neck and dropped onto the floor. Redwing and Darklight didn't stop skipping nor did they drop arms, but they weren't pressed to as that was normal behavior for the two of them.

"Why were you carrying her? It should've been the other way around..." Fangs mumbled to Fireyes while Leo grinned wildly. I just shook my head gently; it seemed like Adder and I were the only mature ones here.

Finally we all arrived at the entrance to the Room of Requirement. As Adder began pacing back and forth in front of where the door would be, I thought back to the day we had discovered it. It was back in our second year, which wasn't too terribly long ago but was, in fact, before we were real pranksters. Sure, we pulled pranks, but we didn't even have our name yet: the Tsukis. In this particular instance, we had poorly executed a prank and were running from multiple people, all of whom could put us in an enormous amount of trouble. We had passed the entrance once, then saw another person down there and turned back around, passed it again, and ended up passing it in this manner twice more. The third time, just before they caught up to us, the door showed and we dove inside. It became our hideout after that.

Once we got inside, Adder gave us the all-clear and we cheered loudly as we possibly could. No one could hear us anyway; that was a part of our hideout - it was sound-proof, people-proof, and magic-proof. After we had all screamed for the fun of it (we didn't get to scream that much, so we used every possible reason to do so; the prank itself wasn't an earth-shattering moment), everyone swarmed to Fireyes to congratulate her for the successful prank. She was laughing along with all of us, very pleased with herself, more so than normal, though that was because we had actually gotten the Marauders. Then it hit me: the Marauders! We'd pranked the Marauders! We had actually done it!

"I haven't seen you this happy in forever, Talon!" Redwing grinned, still with her and Darklight's arms locked together.

"Hey!" I objected, laughing. "I'm happy every day!" Fireyes and I locked eyes and we hugged each other for a half-second, both of us trying to crush the other without looking like we were trying to. We generally failed miserably though, as our faces would get red with the effort (we were both very strong and we'd exhaust ourselves when we tried to be stronger than we already were).

After a minute or two of praise and cheers, Adder straightened herself and forced a serious expression onto her face. "Alright, guys, shut up."

We all stopped talking at once. She bit her lip slightly but didn't make any obvious gesture other than that. Adder had been unanimously and unofficially elected the leader of our gang when we first met. No one had formally discussed it before, but I knew that we all respected her and needed her in that position. Some would be wary to have a Slytherin as their leader, but all our friendships transcended the boundaries of the houses and we all trusted her. Adder, in fact, still wasn't used to everybody listening to her, even after over three years of it occurring. I guess she was nervous about making the wrong decisions, but she hadn't messed up yet.

Adder started off her speech, "Okay, so now we have a new task at hand. Defeat the Marauders at their own game: Pranking. No matter how great it'll feel when we win, we have to get there first. So, we need to make sure that we are organized."

"You sound like a coach!" Leo interrupted.

"Thank... You..." Adder said awkwardly, not quite sure how to respond.

"You're welcome!" Redwing piped up. Fireyes gave her a strange look.

"She wasn't talking to you..."

"So?" Redwing replied, stretching out the 'o' for emphasis.

"You don't-" Fireyes started, and Redwing started arguing with her. Fangs was nearby trying to calm them down ("Guys, guys, it's okay, it doesn't matter...") while Leo and I rolled our eyes. Darklight sat there in her own little world and Adder moaned to herself. Apparently deciding to put her wonderful leadership skills to use, she roared, "For the love of Merlin! You guys just can't get along, can you! Shut up and listen for once!"

"I think you may want to reconsider your leadership strategy," Fangs mumbled, which earned her a pointed glare but nothing more because everyone had finally quieted themselves.

"Now. First off," She snapped her fingers and a large whiteboard appeared. She then drew a chart with the positions needed in the horizontal rows and our names in the vertical columns. "There are six positions: Head, Scheduler, Research and Development, Planner, Runner, and Informant." As she said each position, she pointed to the corresponding job. "Now we go through the list and nominate people. Most jobs are only for one person with a couple exceptions: Planner and Research and Development. To do this process, I say the name of each job and describe it. Then you lot nominate who you want to do each job. You may not nominate yourself nor nominate multiple people per job. After each nomination I will place a check in the corresponding box. Questions? No? So let's begin."

But, alas, Fang had raised her hand.

"Yes, Fang?"

"You do sound like a coach," Fang told her.

"That's not a question, Fang."

"Why do you sound like a coach?"

"I don't know, Fang." Fang was pushing her buttons, I knew, and Adder was getting irritated.

"Do you know what a coach is?"

This time Adder didn't reply to her. Instead, she turned away and said, "Any more questions?"

Redwing, Leo, and Fang raised their hands. Darklight, noticing the sudden movement, shot her hand into the air as well.

"That aren't about me sounding like a coach," Adder growled.

Everyone but Darklight dropped their hands. Darklight looked around awkwardly, feeling suddenly self-conscious, but Adder called on her before she could lower her hand as well.

"Yes, Darklight." She seemed relieved to finally find someone who actually had a relevant question.

"What are we talking about?" she asked cautiously.

Adder closed her eyes for a moment, breathed deeply - a technique I made her use, very helpful in situations like this one - and opened her eyes again, continuing as though nothing had happened. "The Head is the leader of the group. You will listen to her as if she were me. She collects info from our informant, charts out pranks or plans, and everyone reports to her. So who do you lot nominate?"

There was absolutely no hesitation whatsoever when the name "Adder" was shouted through the room. Well, no hesitation other than from Redwing who nominated herself, hopefully as a joke.

"You can't nominate yourself, Redwing," Adder mumbled.

When no one else was suggested for the job, she shook her head, apparently not quite sure why she had expected a different outcome. "The Scheduler is the person who coordinates pranks, plans, meetings etc. If you have any game changing news come to her and she'll schedule a meeting immediately. Nominations?"

"Talon," everyone agreed. Only Fang threw her name out, clearly as a joke. Of course I was chosen; I am the most organised person of our group, but that's not saying much. I also had a feeling that another factor that pushed the others into nominating me: the job sounded boring to the majority of our group. Fang, of course, had no organizational skills whatsoever and acknowledged it daily by commenting about her "organised messes." If she had gotten the job, she would have turned it down instantly.

"Fang, you can't nominate yourself," Adder said in a more pointed, stern tone.

"Research and Development is a multiwitch job. They search for new spells, runes, potions, whatever, for our pranks."

For once, we hesitated - there wasn't anyone obviously like that. Leo shifted her eyes around nervously as if she was looking for anyone who fit the description, but was apparently unsuccessful.

Adder smirked, "That's what I thought. Fang and Redwing would be good for this job. And yes Redwing, you. You can read, understand, and describe stuff quickly if you are interested in it, that's why you are in Ravenclaw. Okay - does everyone agree with my reasoning?"

"Yes." the reply came from everyone, though mumbled by some and more affirmed from others. At least everyone had agreed and no one had tried to irritate her by opposing, though I knew a few had an urge to say something along the lines of, "No, Adder, I think you're completely insane."

"Next up are Planners," Adder continued with her newly-officiated-but-not-so-newly-appointed job, "They are the ones who pull information from the Informant and Research and Development to form actual pranks. They have to be creative."

"Darklight," Fang, Fireyes, and Leo said at once. Fireyes and Leo locked eyes with each other and exchanged a suspicious-looking glance; those two never agreed with each other on anything. They were good friends, of course, but agreements were rare to nonexistent. Most contributed it to the fact that they were in rival houses, myself included, but Fangs had come up with some insane theory that they had met in the future and Fireyes had licked some window and they had been at each other's throats since. Redwing said that it was because Leo was a fraction of an inch taller than Fireyes, Darklight said that it was because they just felt like being ridiculous, and Adder honestly couldn't care less.

"Fireyes," Darklight, Redwing, and I disagreed promptly. Fang grumbled something about not minding doing the job and how Adder was out to get her by giving a boring job until she apparently figured out something fun she could do in Research and Development and left the matter alone.

"Both. Remember, this is a multiperson job. Onwards, the Runner is someone who gathers materials, finds people, and executes the pranks."

"Talon." This decision was unanimous as well, mostly because I already did that job. Adder stifled a laugh and continued, "On to the Informant, this witch will see what the Marauders are thinking and what pranks they may pull. Also they would be intuned with what everyone thinks of both the Marauders and the Tsukis. I nominate Leo for her deviousness and apparent innocence."

"Agreed," replied everyone but Leo who stood up in objection.

"Hey! I'm not devious!" she argued.

Adder rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to say something, but Fang beat her to it: "It's alright Leo, we can get her back later."

Adder raised her eyebrows and looked at the rest of us, but no one objected because Leo grinned deviously and sat back down.

"That's all the jobs," Adder erased the board with an uncertain look on her face, "now onto the actual meeting. We have to reveal our identities to the Marauders."

That was the last thing we expected and one of the biggest reactions we ever had. Fireyes jumped out of her seat and started yelling to no one in particular while Redwing straight-up ran to Adder to plead her not to reveal our identities and Leo just sat there in shock. Fangs was arguing as well, as was Darklight, though she did it much more passively. Darklight was one of the best arguers in Hogwarts, but she'd never raise her voice with her friends; only her enemies. It made her a wonderful ally in battle but a bad enemy to have. I sat there, not quite sure what to think of it and trying to figure out why she would have us do that.

Adder let it go on for a few seconds, and then she cast _Sonorus_ on her throat and shouted, "SHUT UP!"

We all winced and shut up instantly. _Sonorus_+ Adder yelling at the top of her lungs painfully loud voice.

Adder regained her naturally slightly quiet voice and explained herself: "Although it seems like a bad idea, I have my reasons. Primarily, they need a target. Don't worry, though, guys, we're only exposing four of us. This is because there are four of them. The people I suggest to be our "team" should be: myself, as I am the Head, Fireyes and Darklight, as Planners of the actual pranks, and Talon, as the executor of the pranks."

"Makes sense," Fang hesitantly agreed, still seeming a bit unsure. I think we all were; it may not have seemed like much to others, but our anonymity was very important to us. It protected us from others and gave our group respect and pride - no one knew who we were. With every guess they made, we proved them wrong just by being us. It was a non-stop guessing game that proved to us that we were a cut above the others, that we could do things no one thought that the crazy fourth-year girls, who were only crazy because the Gryffindors sat with the Slytherins, could do. Once everyone knew who we were, that was all gone - the mystery was solved, the miracles worthless, the Tsukis forgotten. The fact that no one knew who we were was as important as our group itself. I knew that we had a lot of trust in Adder and that was why we weren't still arguing, but with anyone else we would've - and should've!

Adder continued the narration of her plan, "So we'll end up having three Marauder Informants: Leo, Fang, and Redwing. They'll try to get close to and be friends with: Sirius Black, James Potter, and Remus Lupin respectively. Meeting dismissed. Next one is tomorrow during 5th period. Fireyes, Darklight, and Talon stay back."

Leo frowned. "Can't you say bye? You don't hafta be so formal..." she mumbled.

Adder rolled her eyes and smirked.

"Group hug!" Fang cheered, tackling Adder with Leo at her side. Darklight joined in, as did Redwing and Fireyes, and I stood there laughing and Adder yelped and tried to run away.

"Okay! Okay!" She panted, having managed to wiggle out of their huddle and get a few feet back. "Bye."

"Bye!" Redwing, Fangs, and Leo cheered. They trotted out the door, laughing and pushing each other's buttons as much as they could.

Adder stared after them, slightly amused, and then waved Fireyes, Darklight, and me over.

"Okay. Tonight, after dinner, we're going to meet the Marauders."


	4. Chapter 4

The day went by in a flash and soon dinner was upon us. Leo waved us over to our normal spot at the Lions' feeding ground. We sat three people away from the Moronos, like usual. However, it was a blessing today, instead of the normal curse. Dinner went by quickly without incident and at the ten minute mark, until dinner ended, was announced.

Leo hissed, "Talon"

I looked over and she motioned for me to "come hither", as Adder put it. I did so and she continued to speak even quieter, so I strained my ears to understand her.

"Adder told me to tell you that you need to tell the Marauders to meet us. In order for that to happen, I need to change your voice. Since the potion to do so takes two weeks to manufacture, I am going to charm your vocal cords to change your voice into a strange, but understandable, hiss," Leo seemed to love to hiss.

"Fine."

She did so and shooed me off. I crept past the few people separating me and the Morados. I stopped walking between Potter and Lupin. That was the middle of their group, as the other side of the table had Black and Pettigrew.

"Marauders," I declared.

Their eyes snapped to the shadowy character in front of them, aka me. I was dressed in my outfit I use for missions: straight black long-sleeved shirt and sweatpants, long hair up in a black beret, and a self-cast charm to hide any of my distinguishing features. Fireyes called it my ninja outfit, for some reason.

"For the briefing for the prank war, meet the Tsukis in the antechamber of the Great Hall after dinner. Failure to participate will result in the prank war being forfeit, and the Tsukis will claim victory," I announced, before I pivoted and walked away.

As the Moronos restarted chattering, I walked into a mob of people and charmed my clothes back to normal. I skipped back to my table, with shrunken hat in pocket and charm dispelled. I sat down as Leo, ever oblivious, asked, "Where did you go?"

"Leo…" I groaned, exasperated as ever.

"OOOOHHHHH!"

I rolled my eyes and sighed as I waited for the food to disappear to signal the end of dinner. When it did, Adder, Darklight, Fireyes, and I went to the door of the antechamber. As we walked in, we saw the Moronos sitting there along with…

"CRISPIN PUGNAX RICHARDSON," Fireyes yelled at her brother.

Crispin was a first year Gryffindor and youngest of four kids: Fireyes, Hereitha, Destiny and Crispin. Third year Hereitha, the only brunette of the three, known by us as Viper, as she was in Slytherin, was a hyperactive child who knew how to get on everybody's nerves the moment she saw them. Destiny was a calm, sweet girl who idolized Adder, who managed to get through the male-dominated Slytherin Quidditch team along with Fireyes. However, Des' calmness evaporated when it came to anything Quidditch related. Crispin had longer, curly, auburn hair that, now that I think about it, he liked to run his hand through his hair just like his idol, Potter. He was short, strong, and had the family trait of insane lunacy running through his veins.

"ALONA NIKE RICHARDSON! See? I can do that too," Crispin replied.

"What are you doing here?" asked Black arrogantly.

"Us? Why are you lot doing here?" retorted Adder, although she knew why, she wanted to know what they thought of us.

"We're waiting for the Tsukis,' he boastfully responded.

"And how do you know we are not them?" she questioned.

"Well, they're intelligent and cunning, you obviously cannot be as you are girls and can never be better than us," he confidently said.

"What would you say if we said that we were the Tsukis," Adder seemed to love asking questions.

"I would say 'you lie,'" Black stated.

"And I would say 'prove it,'" Lupin spoke for the first time.

"Well, we are the legendary Tsukis," we chorused with a bow.

"You lie!" Potter shouted.

"Prove it," Pettigrew muttered.

"Well, the latter we will do," Adder smirked and nodded to me.

I smirked as well and muttered_ reducere cum crinem_ for the second time in twenty-four hours and flipped my hair. The Moronos acted liked their nickname and stared at me like I was crazy. I guess I kind of am, but that's beside the point. Black stopped his bored phase and flipped his hair as if to get in tune with reality. This time his hair shortened fifteen centimetres. Right into his skull. He shrieked and then saw all of our smirking faces.

"Enough proof for ya?" Darklight asked innocently

"Yes! Yes! Yes! No More!" Black cried desperately trying to retrieve his vanished hair.

"Now that that's settled…" Fireyes said.

"Give Sirius his hair back!" Crispin blurted randomly (he was quite good at being random).

"No," Fireyes glared at him.

Adder continued condescendingly, "We are not giving back either Potter's or Black's hair back, so you won't leave until **we ** say so." She switched to her 'leader' tone, as we call it. "We need to get to the point here: rules for this war. Total anarchy is **not **an option. First we need a neutral party."

"McGonagall"

"Patricia Pince"

"Veronica McGonagall"

"Snape"

At the last one, the Marauders glared at Pettigrew, who had suggested Snape. Fireyes did too, as she hated her cousin.

"I swear if you bring my cousin into this, I'll eat you in your sleep. Be warned, I know where you live," Fireyes threatened.

"ANYWAY…"

"Thank you, Talon. To go through your suggestions: Professor McGonagall is biased towards you, whether you know it or not. Black is dating Pince. Veronica might work, as she is neutral towards you and only knows us through association. We will make your lives **very** difficult if you choose Snape," Adder said menacingly.

"We need a neutral judge, not biased in any way. They have to be able to take pranks well. We should not know them beyond simple classmates." Lupin explained, surprisingly making sense.

"Thanks, Lupin, that actually made sense," Fireyes echoed my thoughts exactly.

"Finding that person will be impossible," Potter complained.

"Well," I began, "I will find a person that fits those requirements, even if I have to look through THE WHOLE OF THE WHOLE HOGWARTS!" At the end of the statement I cackled to prove my insanity.

Fireyes and Pettigrew cowered from my laugh and Fireyes stopped midway as she didn't want to be grouped with Pettigrew.

Adder glared at me. "Tab… Stop with the laugh, you scared them enough already."

"You scared me enough already."

"Shut up, Darklight, you should be used to it by now."

"I'm not!" Fireyes shouted, giving up on not being paired with Pettigrew.

"Talon, you don't have to do that. I already have a guy in mind. Ivan Brady. He's a Ravenclaw fourth year. He takes pranks well and is neutral to both the Marauders and the Tsukis," Adder explained.

"I know that kid, he's quiet but friendly; an all round good kid," Potter remarked.

"Thanks for that comment. So all in favor of a Mr. Ivan Brady, raise your hand."

Potter, Adder, Darklight, Fireyes, and I raised our hands immediately. Black followed the lead of his best friend, while Lupin started thinking. Pettigrew, not wanting to feel left out, raised his hand.

After counting the hands, Adder announced,"Seven. All opposed?"

Lupin raised his hand, "One. Seven to one. Ivan Brady is our judge."

We heard a sneeze. Nobody laid claim to it, and Fireyes quietly stepped to the closed door and opened it. Viper fell through the door frame, as if she were listening in.

"I'm not listening in, I'm just casually leaning against this door," Viper said frantically.

We knew better than to believe her on that. She responded too quickly with a denial of what everyone thought. Adder and I glared at her. Adder did so because Viper had interrupted her 'perfect' and 'secret' meeting and I, because she often annoys me and it was **not **the best time.

"Oh great," Fireyes replied, "I get to yell at two siblings at once." She turned her attention to Crispin, "And why are you here in the first place?"

"I'm their apprentice," Crispin said arrogantly.

"That's nice. Now, _**Va-t-en!**_"

"Talon said 'go away,'" Adder responded with a roll of her eyes, to the Moronos' vacuous expressions.

"Crispin, Viper, you might want to leave. You do not want to see a mad Talon," Fireyes suggested fearfully.

With her vast prior knowledge of my responses, Viper walked out the door. Crispin, acting like the Morono he claims to be, asked, "Why?"

I glanced at Adder for an affirmative answer and she shrugged, so I went ahead with my plan.

It was quite simplistic. I skip around everyone cackling, throwing non-dangerous hexes at people, and basically acting how Bellatrix Black is reported to act. I heard that people are scared of her. Therefore, I thought it should work for me. It was quite entertaining for me, as I didn't do it often, and my friends, because they get to enjoy the reactions of my 'victims'. I don't intend to injure but I just attempt the effect that I am trying to do so.

I enacted my plan and convinced them that I was insane, which was my point. I picked Crispin up, still skipping, and literally threw him out the door. I slammed the door, locked it, and sat against the door.

"That was fun," I stated with a smile.

The Morados just glanced at each other.

"Thank you Talon, for that demonstration. I believe that we've made our point. And those of you who don't understand what I'm talking about," she said, glaring at the Morado's, "That could be you if you annoy any of us again. Onwards, you six, Fireyes, get your siblings, we need to make an oath."

The Richardsons reentered: Viper, unhappy at being dragged in, and Crispin, avoiding me.

"Now, you shall swear this oath exactly, or Fireyes will _Obliviate_ you. 'I, your name, do so swear on my magic," as she spoke she wrote the oath on a blackboard, "that I will not reveal the Tsukis' members' names, aliases, or secrets, known or unknown, to anything or anybody, living or dead, animate or inanimate, in any way, shape, or form including, but not limited to: writing, signing, speaking, using vocal cords, pictures, or memories, unless specifically stated on a case by case basis by at least three Tsukis members. So mote it be."

"Thorough, are you?"

"Yes, now shut up and swear the oath."

"Isn't Obliviation illegal?"

"Yes, but this isn't Obliviation, per se. It is a different branch of memory charms."

"Why did you say that she would _Obliviate_ us, then?"

"Because it would get my point through your thick skulls. Now swear it, or we will never cure your hair."

That shut Potter and Black up. They hurriedly swore the oaths. The Richardsons could see no harm in it so they swore as well. Pettigrew followed the example of his idol and Lupin searched and searched for a loophole. He soon failed, cursed, and reluctantly swore the oath; Adder really is good at this type of thing.

"Now to terms."

"Shut up Talon, we don't have to listen to you."

"Be quiet Fireyes, I don't have to listen to you."

"Up-shay up-yay."

"Tais-toi"

"Shut up child"

"Shut thou distasteful mouth"

"Tabitha Hebe Green and Alona Nike Richardson be quiet or else." We flinched, as Adder only called us by full names if she was furious or SERIOUSLY ticked off.

We sobered up immediately and Adder mouthed 'later'. Fireyes gulped as she knew that Adder had a wicked temper and a large… vocabulary. She could out cuss anyone in the school. She didn't like to, but she could. She didn't want her Aunt Amelia to tell her mother; who would most likely disown her.

"Onwards, does anyone have a term they'd like to suggest?" Adder said through gritted teeth.

"Don't prank each other specifically, prank the whole of Hogwarts or a specific group of non-competitors," Darklight shouted.

At our weird looks, she said,"What? I can come up with good ideas too!"

"She is right, we need to have a way so that identities are not compromised," Adder explained.

"We already swore not to tell identities."

"Shut up, Black. This is important."

"Agreed"

"No pranks that are life-threatening or can injure physically, beyond the unintentional cuts or bruises."

"You don't trust us?" asked Potter, insulted.

"No. Now deal with it. And in case you didn't realise, we have two Slytherins, a Ravenclaw, and a Gryffindor. We know how you treat Slytherins."

The Morados' eyes widened comically, proving their ignorance. "YOU SLIMY SNAKES! YOU MADE US SWEAR AN OATH!"

"Yes brother, we did. Now _Silencio_,_ Silencio_,and_ Silencio_," Fireyes said calmly as she silenced Crispin, Potter, and Black.

"Anything else?" The three non-silenced people shook their heads, while the three silenced screamed their lungs out, without making any noise.

"War begins Monday with our prank first. We will then alternate pranks. We then have to leave a sign on the pranks proving they are ours. We will contact Brady with our proposition, so do not do so or else. By exiting this door you agree with our terms. If you are here by morning, you have forfeited this war and admitted our superiority. If you have any questions ask Darklight." Adder spun and, with billowing robes, left. The rest of the Tsukis mimicked her in unison as we left for the room, with Fireyes dragging Viper behind her.


End file.
